Vietnam: First Impressions

Just arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon, and most people still call it that). My first experience was a cheap immigration scam. I already took care of getting a Vietnam visa beforehand, so I thought I was all set, but the Immigration Officer asked me for an additional form. Usually, if there are any forms to fill out the airline will give them to you in advance, but they gave none. He looked shocked that I didn't have the form as if this was something very unusual. So I said "No problem, where are the blank forms so I can fill it out now?". He said there are no blank forms anywhere(!). I just stared at him blankly for several seconds. Finally he pulls out a form and offers to fill it in for me, for a $5 bribe. A few minutes later I got into a taxi, for which I prepaid. As soon as got in the driver says, "Ok sir, you give me tip ok?". With these and many more incidents, I quickly realized that this town is full super-greedy money-grubbers, far more than any other Asian city I've been to (with the possible exception of some Indian cities). Everything is negotiable here just like every other Asian city, but you have to bargain much harder to get to a decent price. This becomes annoying after a while.

I just got a Vietnam SIM card (my 3rd SIM card) so that my phone works here. I noticed some special "Tourist Police" around town. This is only the second city I have seen to have that (the other is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

Traffic here is insane. There is basically no traffic control (there are a few stop lights, but they are mostly ignored). Instead there is an organically developed system where everyone is playing a video game like Asteroids, where you simultaneously track multiple moving obstacles and try to steer a course which narrowly avoids them. As a pedestrian, if you want to cross the street you can't just wait for for a gap in the traffic (because there is no such thing as a "gap in traffic" here). Instead, you simply wait until you can move 2 ft into the street without being immediately run over. Then you establish a constant speed, and walk in a straight line. Then based on your speed and direction, the approaching scooters and cars will make a decision to zip by just behind, or just ahead of you. It all works out fine if you understand the system. If you stop or change direction suddenly, then you could be in real danger.

There are lots of "hug taxis" (motorbike taxis where you sit on the back of a scooter) around town. Most of these guys are complete idiots.

Most of the ex-pats here are Australian.

Save Your House -- Build a Spirit House!

Everywhere in Thailand, Cambodia, and Lao, people build "spirit houses" in front of their houses or place of business. The people in this region believe that normally, evil spirits will haunt your house and bring you bad luck. So the idea is that if you build a spirit house, then they will live there instead and leave your house alone. Spirit houses range from about the size of a mailbox, to about a Barbie Dream house. Some are quite elaborate. But it's not enough just to build a spirit house; you also have to feed the greedy spirits. So people will put out some rice and flowers in the spirit house every day. The spirits are happy, you're happy. Everybody wins.

Ventiane, Capital of Lao

Ventiane (actually it's pronounced "Vieng Jen", but the French messed up everything as usual). I was very surprised by the size and development of Ventiane. Granted, it's the capital city of Lao but I was expecting something similar to the other two cities I visited in Lao -- Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng.
I could not have been farther from the mark. Ventiane has several high-rise condos and several five-star hotels. Just for fun, I walked into a luxury apartment building and inquired about the price -- and was totally shocked. The rent was almost comparable to rents in SF!!


The French influence is quite apparent here, in the architecture of many buildings, and there are several French bistros and restaurants. The bowling alley here is better than the one in Luang Prabang. There is a Chinese-Indian fusion restaurant here that is pretty good.

I spent about 4 days here.

The Water Cave

The terrain around Vang Vieng is really beautiful -- when you can see it. Unfortunately the air quality in Lao is so poor because of the slash-and-burn farming that is done all over the country. It fills the entire sky with smoke and ash, and blocks out the Sun for months. It only clears up after a heavy rain. when it is clear, you can see that the area is surrounded by sheer limestone karsts that suddenly rise up vertically from the ground. Most of these limestone structures are riddled with caves. Today I went with Roland to the Water Cave, about 20km outside of town. We rented bikes again and rode there. Once along the way I received a nice ego boost when I stopped to ask a woman for directions (in Lao of course). She asked me how long I had been in Lao and was very surprised when I told her it was only about a week. She thought I must have been there about one year to learn that much Lao!

The Water Cave itself is pretty cool. It's filled with water rushing out from a large underground spring deep within the cave.
They give you an inner tube to float on the water and there are ropes to pull youself along to explore the cave. The cave went a lot deeper than I expected, and we never did really reach the end. Again, we were a bit late in returning the bikes but didn't get charged any late fee!

BTW, the best mojitos (main drink of Cuba) in Vang Vieng are found at Bamboo Bar (they also have a great vegetarian buffet). Everything at the bar is made from bamboo: the tables, benches, the bar itself, and it's surrounded by bamboo trees. The mojito is served in a bamboo mug with bamboo straws!

Spotting The Rare Cave Leopard

Today I went on another bike ride with Roland, Steffi, and Dan. We visited the Leopard Cave. There are tons of caves around here, and typically each one will have a handwritten sign with a paragraph of text hyping it. Not all the caves live up to their hype The Leopard cave did though. The caves are pitch dark once you get inside, and you need too bring your own lighting, or sometimes you can rent a flashlight. The cave was quite deep, with multiple narrow passageways. We were not even able to explore all of them, or be sure that we had reached an end. Along the way we saw a huge cave spider about the size of your hand, with reddish legs and a stark white body, and glowing white eyes! Following what seemed to be the main passageway, we eventually came to a massive rock formation descending from the ceiling of the cave. After staring at it in awe for a few moments, we all agreed that it resembled a leopard, running in full charge. This cave earned its name! Just outside the cave was a spring-fed pool with cool clear water that we all swam in -- so refreshing!

After that, I took them on another book distribution mission to a small remote village. We went to the school but the students had already left. So we left lessons for them on the blackboard :)

We then raced back to get to the bike rental place in time (we arrived about 20 minutes late but didn't get charged extra!).

The Strange Tubing Culture Of Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng has become a huge party town. This in itself strange, because you don't expect to find an almost Ibiza-style or Cabo-style party hot spot in the middle of otherwise very rural Lao. There are several makeshift outdoor bars/dance clubs on the river island, which no doubt have to be rebuilt every year since the island gets submerged during high water season.

The key to the party culture in Vang Vieng though, is tubing. Tubing nominally refers to renting an inner tube and floating down the river on it. But you only float a few feet before coming to the first riverside bar. They toss you a line and pull you in. You hang out there and drink and dance for a while. Before you know it, an hour has already passed. Most of the riverside bars also have huge rope swings or ziplines, where you jump off platforms from dizzying heights (30-40 ft or so), swing high up in the air, and then let go and jump into the water. The more acrobatically inclined will try double backflips or elegant swan dives. I have to admit it is scary at first, but once you do it successfully, it is so thrilling and you get such rush of adrenaline that you get practically giddy, and you keep doing it over and over again. So, basically "tubing" here means floating a few feet to the next bar, drinking, dancing, swinging, jumping, and then floating a few more feet to the next bar. Many people get stuck and never get past the first few bars. Actually a tube is not even necessary at all. In fact only the first timers rent tubes. The party veterans know it's a waste of time and expense to rent a tube, because you can just as well swim from bar to bar. In many places the water is so shallow you can even walk. After "tubing" all day, you then return to town and prepare to go party at the island bars all night. All the bars are supposed to close as midnight, but one or two will always pay off the police to be allowed to stay open later, til 2 or 3 am. So, partying all day and partying all night -- this is the essence of the Vang Vieng party culture. The typical story is that people plan on spending maybe 2 days here, and end up staying about 10 days instead. This is what happened to me.

In town, there is only ONE ATM machine, and almost nothing but: restaurants/bars, guesthouses, travel agencies, and internet cafes. Most bars/restaurants have the pillow bench tables, where you can lounge around on pillows, even take a nap. The thing I found the strangest is that many restaurants have nothing but reruns of "Friends" playing nonstop on the TV (there is also one restaurant playing "Family Guy", and one playing "The Simpsons" nonstop). I avoided all these restaurants on principle.

Compared to Luang Prabang, prices in Vang Vieng are as follows:
-lodging and laundry are 1/2 X
-internet is 3X (but the speed is much better)
-other things are about the same or a little cheaper

Also, for some strange reason there is no ice cream anywhere in town although there was in Luang Prabang.

The Blue Lagoon, Revisited

Rented a bike and met up with Karl, Nick, Jules, Rosa, and Amanda. We rode to Poukham Cave and the Blue Lagoon, which was a cool refreshing swimming spot with rope swings you can jump off. If you just follow the signs that say "Blue Lagoon" you will end up in the wrong place because there are several (fake) spots called the "Blue Lagoon", but only if you follow the signs to "Poukham Cave" do you get to the real Blue Lagoon. The water is actually blue and clear because it is fed from a spring, not from the muddy river. After lunch I took Karl and Rosa with me on another book distribution mission. We rode to a rural Hmong village (Na Son). We went into the school which was nearing the end of the session. As soon as one kid saw us approaching all the kids immediately jumped to the doors and windows to get a peek at the strangers. They clearly don't get many visitors, and few tourists venture out this far. This was a primary school with kids aged from 5 to 11. The school building is fairly primitive with bamboo walls with many holes in them, and a few wooden benches and tables. Probably you could rebuild the entire school for $1000. I handed out pens and books, which again were received with great enthusiasm. The teachers had to stop teaching because we were creating too much of a distraction, but they didn't seem to mind us at all and seemed pleased with our gifts to the students. Rosa didn't bring books but she got the idea of making little origami animals for the kids, which were a big hit. We stopped by the village store to get some water and it turns out of the girls I had given a book to is the daughter of the store owner. Her name is "Mai Li". She came running home excitedly to tell her father about the "falang" (foreigners) who had given her a book.

"Khab Chai Lai Lai"

I'm not sure why it's spelled "Laos" in English, because the "s" is not pronounced at all. It's really "Lao" (rhymes with "now"). So I will say "Lao" from now on. BTW, I've been learning some Lao language so that I can talk to the local people at least a little bit. I can even read a little bit of the script! Here are a few phrases in Lao:

khab chai lai lai	thank you very much
sabaidee	hello/good morning/etc
jao seu nyang?	what is your name?
jao aanyu chaak pi?	how old are you?
nee aan dai baw?	can you read this?
mee maak phao sot baw?	do you have fresh coconut?
baw pen nyang	you're welcome/it's ok/never mind
ao iik neung bia	one more beer please
hawn lai	it's very hot
khoi hak jao	i love you

The Magic Power Of Books

Today we (Wolle, Johanna, and I) went on a mountain biking/kayaking trip. We cycled on a winding bumpy dirt road along a river, through some rural areas, passed by the Elephant Mahout Training Center, ate lunch at a tiny hut cafe on the side of the river, and kayaked back home down the river.

Knowing we would be passing a few rural villages, I wanted to take some things to give to the village kids. Many people give out things like candy, but I wanted to do something more meaningful. So I bought a bunch of books for children -- mostly books for helping Lao children learn English or Arithmetic, but also some storybooks with pictures and coloring books for the younger children. Then, whenever we passed by a rural area I would give away the books. But I didn't just hand the books to them and leave. Usually I would stop and chat with the kids, sit down with them, read to them out of the books, point to pictures in the book and ask them to identify the object, etc. Lao kids are very respectful to strangers and almost all of them from the age where they can speak will yell out the greeting "Sabaidee!" (Good day!) as you pass by. (I'm not sure if they are specifically taught to do this, or if it's just part of their culture). But if you approach them directly they become very shy and apprehensive. Of course as you talk with them they become more at ease. But nothing makes them instantly lose all fear and become wide-eyed with excitement than when you pull out a book and show it to them. Immediately a big circle of kids forms around you as they rush in to get a glimpse. Now, these books cost maybe 50 cents to produce. But most of these kids come from families that don't own a single book. Most don't even go to school but even the ones that do only have blank workbooks. There are no textbooks; the teacher writes all the lessons on the blackboard. So a book is a real treat for them, and it shows in the excitement on their faces. The books also allow me to interact directly with the locals and experience the local culture more directly. These interactions were really among the highlights of my trip. I found them so rewarding and gratifying that I would later repeat this activity several more times. Every few days I would buy a bunch of books, rent a bike, ride to some remote village, and hand out the books.

Candy would give them about five minutes of pleasure, but books have the power to possibly change and improve their lives. And that's almost magic.

Two Caves And A Waterfall

Laos is one of the poorest countries in the world. But the seem to be having a surge of tourism recently, which should help them a great deal. Laos is actually a communist country (one of only 6 communist countries left in the world).
Today I did an all-day tour consisting of a boat ride to a couple of Buddhist caves in the side of a mountain, stopping at a rural village on the way. At this village I bought a nice black pajama pants with fancy colorful embroidery. They were sewing and weaving clothes with handmade looms. This became my "party pants" in Laos. I also tried a local fried flat bread that was slightly sweet -- it was delicious! I never saw this bread again at any other place, so maybe it was unique to this village!

Then we visited the Buddhist caves. These were nice and interesting. They are fairly old caves, being in use for hundreds of years. There is a high cave requiring a climb up many step and a low cave. This cute little girl tried very hard to sell me a "Wish" bird for a dollar. You make a wish or prayer and then release the tiny bird from the cage and let it fly away. I said no but she persisted. She put on her saddest face and said things like "my family is poor", "we have no money", "we have to go back to our Laos village". She was real good. So I told her I'd give her a dollar if she just posed for a picture, which she did. I showed her the picture and she beamed. Then I gave her 40 Thai Baht (a little more than a dollar) and her eyes lit up like she had just won the lottery. Completely gone was that sad face she had the whole time previously. When I passed by her again on the way back, she was still smiling and specially waved and said goodbye ("sabaidee") and thank you ("khab chai") to me.

In the afternoon we went to Kuang Si Waterfall, a very scenic and picturesque waterfall and good hiking and swimming opportunities.

On the way back we stopped at a very poor Hmong village.

Helping A Monk With His Homework

I ran into Wolle again (he came on the speedboat with me) and along with Johanna from Austria, we visited the Phou Si Buddhist temple on top of the hill. This temple is fairly impressive and affords the best views of the city of Luang Prabang. They have multiple Buddha statues -- one for each day of the week. There is also a giant Buddha footprint in the rock. And there is a fortune telling Buddha too. I explained the procedure to Wolle and Johanna and they both got a fortune. The procedure is as follows:

1. put a donation in the box
2. pray 3 times - once for Buddha, once for yourself, once for the teachings of Buddha.
3. take the can filled with wooden sticks and shake it gently while tilting it.
after a while one of the sticks will fall out or stick out farther than the rest.
4. pick up that stick a look at the number written on it. then walk over to the fortune board and pick up the slip of paper with that number written on it.

However the fortunes are written in Laos so I told them to find a local to translate for them.

On the way back we stopped to chat with a couple of Monk Novices (student Monks). There are hundreds of Monks and Novices in Luang Prabang all wearing the bright orange robes. One of them was working on a homework assignment from school (the one on the left in the picture). The assignment was to write a short essay in English about some embarrassing incident that had happened in your life, and answer some questions about it. He clearly knew many English words but he was having trouble constructing grammatically correct sentences and understanding some of the questions. So I helped him write the essay and complete the assignment. In return he translated the fortunes for us, and everyone was happy!

"Same Same... But Different"

A common phrase heard often around here is "same same". For example while riding in a tuktuk we got into a traffic jam. I asked the driver about it and he said "same same traffic everyday". An even funnier variant is "same same but different", which a local might say if you ask how another town compares with this one. This phrase has become so common it's found on many t-shirts.

Faaast Boat To Laos

The pace of my travel has slowed considerably and I'm spending a longer time in each place, taking the time to thoroughly cover all there is to experience in each particular locale.

After about 10 days in Chiang Mai, I decided to take a longer side trip to Laos. It takes several days to reach Luang Prabang from Chiang Mai. It takes one day to get to Chiang Kong by bus, right at the border. Then spend an overnight there and then the next day get a Laos visa and hire a boat down the river to Luang Prabang. Most everyone takes the slow boat which takes 2 more days, but is more relaxing, you can walk around the boat, talk to each other, etc. I opted for the speed boat which takes only 6 hours, but is more of a thrill ride (during wet season the boat can make the trip in as little as 4 hours). When I say "speed boat" you might be thinking of a racing cigarette boat or high-powered super-yacht. Better think again. Someone described it as a surfboard with a car engine on it, which isn't far from the truth. The boat pilot has to be very familiar with the river to avoid hitting any of the rocks at high speed. I was glad I chose this option, but I wouldn't recommend it for those concerned with safety or comfort. In Chiang Kong I met several young mostly European backpackers. I made friends with several of them and would continually run into some of them and hang out together in subsequent travels Laos. I thought I was traveling for along time, but most of these people are traveling for much longer -- 4-8 months,or even years!

I left my big suitcase in Chiang Mai with my friend Mark and took only a small bag, which turned out to be perfectly adequate for traveling in Laos.

My Thai phone SIM card doesn't work here at all; I had to get a Laos SIM card.

Chilling in Chiang Mai

A funny thing happened in Chiang Mai: I got comfortable -- perhaps too comfortable, because I ended up staying here a lot longer than I had planned. I rented an apartment for $10/day, and a motorbike for about $2.50/day. A meal can be had for $1-$3, and the food is so good! Fresh, healthy, and super spicy!

I did visit the Tiger Kingdom, a park where you can pet wild tigers!

I also did a two-day trekking into one of the Hill Tribe villages. This included an elephant ride, a bamboo raft ride, sleep overnight in a primitive hut, mingling with the Hill Tribe people, and a lot of trekking. For breakfast our guide made us omelet with ant larvae eggs!